Published On: October 25, 2021 at 11:15 IST
48th Chief Justice of India
NAME – Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana
PROFESSION – Judge of the Supreme Court
BORN – 27/08/1957
PLACE OF BIRTH – Ponnavaram, Andhra Pradesh
FATHER’S NAME – N/A
MOTHER’S NAME – N/A
SPOUSE – Shivamala
SIBLINGS – N/A
CHILDREN – 2
EDUCATION – B.Sc. and LL.B.
AWARDS – N/A
SPECIALISATION – Constitutional, Criminal, Service and Inter-State River laws.
COMMITTEE/ PANEL HEADED – Chairman, Supreme Court Legal Services Committee.
BACKGROUND – N.V. Ramana is a Judge of Supreme Court who is currently serving as 48th Chief Justice of India. Before becoming Chief Justice of India he was a judge of Supreme Court of India. He also was Chief Justice of Delhi High Court and the acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court.
He was born in an agrarian family in Ponnavaram village in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. In the beginning of his career Ramana was a journalist for the Eenadu newspaper. Later, he became an Advocate and practiced in High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals and the Supreme Court of India in Civil, Criminal, Constitutional, Labour, Service and Election matters.
He also served as Panel Counsel for various Government Organizations. He has functioned as Additional Standing Counsel for Central Government and Standing Counsel for Railways in the Central Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad. He has also functioned as the Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.
CAREER TIMELINE –
1979-1980 – Journalist for the Eenadu newspaper.
1983- Enrolled as an Advocate at High Court of Andhra Pradesh.
2000- Became Permanent Judge of Andhra Pradesh High court.
2013- Elevated as Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.
2014- Elevated as a judge in the Supreme Court of India.
2020- Became Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).
2021- Appointed as the 48th Chief Justice of India by the President Ram Nath Kovind.
LANDMARK JUDGEMENTS –
- Pawan Kumar Gupta Vs State of NCT Delhi, Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 547 Of 2020 [Arising out of SLP (Crl.) D No. 2122 of 2020]
A Coram of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, Rohinton Fali Nariman, R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan, and AS Bopanna while hearing the Pawan Kumar Gupta vs State of NCT Delhi case had dismissed the curative petition and stay on the execution of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape convict. The Court dismissed the final plea against the rejection of mercy petition of the convicts by the President of India. On March 20, at 5:30 am the four convicts were hanged to death at Tihar Jail.
- Jindal Stainless Ltd Vs State Of Haryana, Civil Appeal No. 3453/2002
A 9-judge bench, by 7:2 majorities, upheld the validity of the entry tax imposed by the States on goods imported from other States. T.S. Thakur, A.K. Sikri, S.A. Bobde, Shiva Kirti Singh, N.V. Ramana, R. Banumathi and A.M. Khanwilkar, JJ, giving the majority view said that States are well within their right to design their fiscal legislations.
- Central Public Information Officer Vs Subhash Chandra Agarwal, Civil Appeal No. 10044 Of 2010
The 5-judge Constitution Bench of Ranjan Gogoi, NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, held that the office of the Chief Justice of India comes under the purview of the Right to Information.
- Md. Anwar Vs State Of NCT Of Delhi, Criminal Appeal No. 1551 Of 2010 [Arising Out Of Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No. 3388 Of 2010]
A bench comprising of Justice NV Ramana, SA Nazeer and Surya Kant stated that in order to claim immunity citing mental illness according to Section 84 of the IPC, the accused needs to display beyond all reasonable doubt that he/she really suffers from an ailment that affects their discretionary judgement.
CONTROVERSIES – In September 2020, FIR was registered against N.V. Ramana’s Daughters, Tanuja and Bhuvana, along with 11 other people in the office of Anti-Corruption Bureau, Guntur.
On October 6, 2020, Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy and his principal advisor Ajeya Kallam alleged that N.V. Ramana had been altering the sittings of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT – He became the permanent Judge of Andhra Pradesh High court on 27 June 2000.
On 2 September 2013, he was made the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and on 17 February 2014 he became a judge in the Supreme Court of India.
In March 2021, Justice SA Bobde recommended him as his successor to the post of CJI.
Ramana was appointed as the 48th CJI by the President of India on 6 April 2021.